Ripley Johnson from Wooden Shjips teams up with Sanae Yamada to create Moon Duo, birthing a sorta Kraut-inspired (the motorik Neu!-beats especially) psych record that blows hundreds of stoner bands out of the water and back into their parents' basements. Recurring-era Spacemen 3 and Suicide loom rather large here, with cascades of reverb fuzz and cavernous echo and organ. Beautiful, hypnotic, nocturnal music. Best new record in a long while.

On the heels of Moon Duo's latest record, Escape (out on Woodsist), Sacred Bones now offers the group's Killing Time EP from last year on CD. Wooden Shjips' Ripley Johnson and Sanae Yamada create a sorta Kraut-inspired (the motorik Neu!-beats especially) psych record that blows hundreds of stoner bands out of the water and back into their parents' basements. Recurring-era Spacemen 3 and Suicide (especially on "Speed," the second track) loom rather large here, with cascades of reverb fuzz and cavernous echo and organ (also known as "Jon McCafferty-rock"), this stuff is more concise and less drifting than a lot of the Wooden Shjips songs -- beautiful, hypnotic, nocturnal music.

-Andreas Knutsen (February 24, 2010)